Car: Touring vs Performance Tires – What’s Your Pick? #Bridgestone

Yesterday I told you a little about the Bridgestone Your Time to Perform Drive & Learn event I attended in Las Vegas last month and what I learned about tire safety (you can read that post here). Today I want to share with you what I learned about tires and how they add to your comfort.

The Importance of Car Tires – Touring vs Performance

There are traditionally two types of car tires. Performance tires are for someone who values handling over a smooth ride. They give you greater control should you have to make an emergency maneuver, but they’re noisy. They also have an aggressive tread pattern that wears out faster.

Touring tires give you a quiet and comfortable ride and they’re long wearing, but you pay for that with lower braking grip and slower response to emergency moves.

The Bridgestone Dueler HP Sport AS won easily for comfort and control over its competitor

The Importance of Tires – All Season Tires

Thankfully Bridgestone has engineered a several new tires that marry touring and performance tires into one tire that does it all. They’ve just introduced the Potenza RE97AS which addresses fuel efficiency, wear life, as well as wet and dry performance. They’ve also introduced the Dueler H/P Sport ASwhich is a new environmentally conscious tire made from recycled materials and non-aromatic oil. With its longer wearing tread, the tire life is increased keeping it on the car and out of the landfill.

We had a chance during the event to drive both of these tires as well as comparable competitor tires in identical cars. The Potenza RE97ASwas a clear winner in my book for handling and ride, but the Dueler H/P Sport ASwas a close second. Both had exceptional handling and a smooth ride and both beat their competition easily.

The track at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway was made to mimic real world driving condions to test the Bridgestone tires

The Importance of Tires – Seasonal Tires

Bridgestone also introduced a new winter tire, the Blizzak. This winter tire is engineered for maximum grip in winter conditions. They also released a new summer tire, the Potenza RE-11A which is meant for areas of the US where heat is an issue. Areas like Phoenix where the ground temperature is well over 100 degrees; these tires are engineered to grip and release the road.

The Importance of Tires – No Tire Left Behind

I was thrilled to learn about Bridgestone’s green efforts, one of which is their goal to reuse, repurpose or recycle one tire for every one they sell in the US. To accomplish this, they’re working to have 100% of their retail stores understand the value of reusing and recycling. Additionally, they are supporting community efforts to keep tires from contaminating natural habitats and landfills.

Bridgestone Tires Series

Tomorrow I’ll tell you more about the event an some of the fun things we did as well like driving an exotic car around a track – I got up to 106 mph!

A mom and wife, Connie blogs about entertainment, travel, living green, products, technology, DIY home remodeling and decor, and more. She's a vegetarian and animal lover and lives in the Pacific Northwest near Seattle, WA.
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Janet W.

Karen Glatt

I would pick the performance tires for a smoother handling while driving. Good performance tires are a must for safety and being able to drive over adverse conditions. Are performance tires all season tires? I could not tell in the article. Also, I do use a winter tire for added grip.